February every year brings a plethora of stories about the suppression of Valentine's Day in Saudi Arabia and, once again, the religious police have obliged. As a headline in The Scotsman puts it: "Roses are banned, violets are too".

As most of the stories point out, heart-shaped objects and other romantic paraphernalia can be purchased in the kingdom at any time of the year – except for a few days during the run-up to February 14. So the trick is to make your purchases before the annual ban comes into force.

As with most of the mutawa's efforts to dictate personal behaviour, it's basically about pretence: what people are seento do concerns the authorities more than what they actually doin private.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 12 February 2010.